


Single Riders Will Be Paired

by Zee_McZed



Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: Amusement Park, Contrived meeting, EGS Flashfic Week 2018, F/F, Fluff, Very Slight AU, cuteness, flashfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-20 14:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16139153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zee_McZed/pseuds/Zee_McZed
Summary: When a date at the amusement park goes badly, Diane storms off to ride a roller coaster by herself.The first chapter of this was done for EGS Flashfic Week. You can blame every addition thereafter on insomnia.





	1. Chapter 1

Diane’s date shrank away a little. “Oh, come on. It sounds like a better idea than puking our guts out all day, doesn’t it?”

“First off - if all it takes to get you to throw up for  _eight hours straight_ is riding one thrill ride… ew. Second, I’m not going to  _neck_ on Pirates of Lake Michigan.”

“Why not? It’s dark, there’s plenty of room between the boats…” He tried to sidle up to her again. Diane stepped back.

“There are security cameras over every square inch of the ride.”

“They won’t see-”

“ _Infrared cameras. Second,_ do you really get turned on around the smell of water that probably hasn’t been changed since this park  _opened?!”_

 _“_ I-”

“Look, you want to ride that, feel free. I’m going on something else.”

“O-okay? Uh - where should we meet up?”

“School. Maybe. Later.” She stormed off, pulling her phone out of her bag. The Midwestern Kingdom was a weird park - it had started out as a blatant ripoff of Disneyland, a la Nara Dreamland, and had grown into its own  _thing_ in the seventies. The odd ‘WE CAN’T SAY DISNEY BUT THINK DISNEY’ elements were interspersed through thrill rides that were too odd to be picked up by King’s Island or Cedar Point. And while it was normally just open in the summer, it did open its doors for a ‘spring preview’ one week a year. 

Naturally, two thirds of her school was there, despite the lingering chill in the air. 

_NoBottleBlonde: Did you make it out here?_

If Lucy was there, she could get a ride home with her. Odds were slim, given what she’d said, but-

 _XenaWasRight: Nope._  
_XenaWasRight: Car’s still broken down._  
_XenaWasRight: And I never knew fixing it would be this fun._  
_NoBottleBlonde: Fun? Seriously?_  
_XenaWasRight: Hey, what can I say, the company makes the activity._  
_XenaWasRight: Gotta go. We’re lifting the engine out._  
_NoBottleBlonde: What? What company?_  
_NoBottleBlonde: Lucy?_  
_NoBottleBlonde: I WANT DEETS LATER._  
  
Well. Crap. Good that Lucy was having a date she was  _enjoying_ for once, even if ‘fixing her car’ wasn’t technically a date, but… that left her alone in the park. Unlesssss…  
  
_NoBottleBlonde: Hey, are you and your dork friends here?_  
_TrillHitchhiker: I choose to take that term as a compliment. And yes._  
_NoBottleBlonde: YES. Okay, my date turned out to be a real creep. Mind if I hang with you guys?_  
_TrillHitchhiker: Oh no. I am terribly offended. How dare you suggest such a thing. Gasp. I think I have a case of the vapors._  
_NoBottleBlonde: :P_  
_TrillHitchhiker: We’re split up at the moment. Most of us are in one line or another, but we’re meeting in 30 minutes at the entrance to El Torqueno._  
_NoBottleBlonde: I’m heading there now. Can’t believe that guy was too wimpy to even try riding it…_  
_TrillHitchhiker: …the vast majority of our party is too._  
_NoBottleBlonde: PFFT. I’m trying it. See you there soon._  
  
She closed down the phone and headed for the new ride. It was an  _intimidating_ coaster. A bright orange steel thing that wound in and out of ambiguously-industrial theming. Each pair of seats were also able to rotate around end over end. It was fast. It was intense. And - yes, if you had a weak stomach… but she was made of sterner stuff. She could manage it.   
  
Right? Right.   
  
The line wasn’t especially interesting. She did enjoy the fact that they were at least trying to build suspense, letting the line cut past several stretches of track, so you could hear the screams and roar of the ride and really soak in what was going to happen. She didn’t notice the sign until she was in sight of the boarding platform.   
  
_Single riders will be paired._  
  
Oh. Great.  

She looked around rapidly, trying to make sure the creep wasn’t there. No. No, he hadn’t been clever enough to try to pull that. Good. So she had to ride with a stranger, but that wouldn’t matter much. It was just one ride, and then she’d be with her…  _ ~~estranged niece~~   _ ~~Cousin by blood~~  friend and her friend’s friends. God. So much easier to ignore the blood relation. The last few minutes of wait were short, and then she was there, waiting on the platform alone as the operator herded her to a seat right at the back, and - then waved over another girl about her age. Shorter. More pear shaped, though she definitely made it work. Also blonde. She said something, though it was drowned out by the sound of the ride and the music over the PA. Diane just shrugged in return. The other girl grinned, rolled her eyes, and gestured to the seat. In they went, and the harnesses clicked into place… and that was it. A minute passed. Two. And then they were heading for the lift hill. The girl next to Diane let out a whoop.   
  
“AWESOME! I’ve been waiting for this for a YEAR!”   
  
“Seriously? Are you that much of a coaster junkie?”   
  
“Maybe? I dunno. I mean, I only ever go  _here…”_ Diane craned her head around. The other girl gave a hapless shrug,  barely visible in the harness, still grinning. Diane just laughed once. Eh, what the hell. She could drop the thin veneer of self control and just  _enjoy_ this for once. Her enthusiasm was infectious. They crested the lift hill, and for a moment they were all screaming, and then - DOWN. The speed was everything, plunging them through a canyon of rust and gray, before it  _twisted_ to the side, and then they were  _flipping_ backwards, making it impossible to see where they were going - and the disorientation, the shock, the  _sheer adrenaline_ was so  _good,_ so pure, so cleansing, that Diane found herself  _screaming_ along with everyone else, venting her nerves and her delight and the sheer sensory overload of it.   
  
Somewhere around the cobra roll, she found herself grabbing the other girl’s hand. She had been sort of flailing, and - wow, she had a HELL of a grip, and - she barely registered that for the rest of the ride. Not until they lurched to a stop in front of the station, and everyone started cheering. They were  _not quite_ upright, and the cars took a moment to spin them slowly into place before they advanced to the platform to unload with a loud hiss.   
  
The bars were lifted. They stumbled out, dizzy and laughing and flushed, and staggered towards the exit.   
  
“Oh. My. Fuzzy. GOD. That was amazing!” The shorter girl blurted. “That… that was better than I hoped for!”   
  
“I KNOW, RIGHT?” Diane was  _trying_ not to gush. “I swear, I - I nearly blacked out for a second. I - holy -  _frick_ I can’t even think straight right now.” She stumbled, and nearly fell, only to slump over on the shorter girl, who burst into giggles again - as someone cleared their throat nearby.   
  
“Well. I was going to tell you that we were waiting for Diane, but you found her. Ah - Diane, Sarah. Sarah, Diane.” Susan was standing at the bottom of the ramp, next to Justin, Elliot, and… well… the whole rest of Susan’s little crew. A curvy black girl (Grace, that - that  _was_ her name, right?) gave her a MASSIVE smile, grabbing the arm of another girl with a mop of purple hair. She was  _squeeing_ in an almost inaudible pitch.  
  
“Yeah, yeah, we rode together. You… you don’t know what you’re missing. I swear, I’m still high off the vertigo.” Sarah nudged Diane upright, and - that was when both of them realized they were  _still_ holding hands. And that they had been clutching each other so hard that they probably had  _bruises_ from each other’s fingertips.   
  
Oh.   
  
_Oh._  
  
That… probably shouldn’t have gotten a blush out of Diane, but-  
  
“So which ride’s next? We gotta pick something a  _little_ tamer for these guys, but - we all up for the Steel Noodle?” Sarah didn’t let go. If anything, she gave her hand another squeeze before pulling her towards the next ride.   
  
She really had to send that creep a thank you letter. A severely passive aggressive thank you letter, but a thank you all the same.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm still not sure if I like this, but hey, why not? Written during a 2 AM bout of insomnia. 
> 
> Three messenger conversations from Diane's phone the day after the ride.

NotBottleBlonde: Full confession.  
NotBottleBlonde: That was fun.  
 _TrillHitchhiker: You really enjoyed yourself?_  
NotBottleBlonde: I did. I didn't get half of what you were talking about, and Tedd seems like a complete pervert, but it was nice.   
_TrillHitchhiker: In the first place: Yes, Tedd is a pervert, but he is a polite pervert, not a creepy pervert. In the second place, Grace and Sarah are his equals in perversion, at the least. And in the third, I'm glad._   
NotBottleBlonde: Sarah is a perv?!  
 _TrillHitchhiker: She's quieter about it, but yes._  
 _TrillHitchhiker: I'm told she created a male form specifically to ogle._  
NotBottleBlonde: Male what now?  
 _TrillHitchhiker: I did mention the transformation things, yes?_  
NotBottleBlonde: OH.   
NotBottleBlonde: I thought those just swapped sexes or made clones.  
 _TrillHitchhiker: It's entirely possible to make more specific parameters. Mv5 turns whoever is hit by it into a super-masculine, muscular, short-haired hunk with amped up pheromones._   
NotBottleBlonde: So she's straight, then.  
NotBottleBlonde: I guess someone in your group had to be.  
 _TrillHitchhiker: Not... entirely._  
NotBottleBlonde: ...meaning?  
 _TrillHitchhiker: She's bisexual, but more interested in men than women... usually._  
 _TrillHitchhiker: Much like yourself._  
NotBottleBlonde: Hey! I'm not bi, I'm straight-plus-Nanase.   
_TrillHitchhiker: You're interested in Sarah._  
NotBottleBlonde: ...  
NotBottleBlonde: Okay straight-plus-two-exceptions-MAYBE.   
NotBottleBlonde: What gave it away?  
 _TrillHitchhiker: Aside from immediately wanting clarification regarding Sarah's orientation, and only biting on her perviness, and not Grace's?_  
 _TrillHitchhiker: You two spent most of the day holding hands off and on, and you were staring at your hand after she left._   
NotBottleBlonde: I was looking at the bruises she left.  
 _TrillHitchhiker: Ah, she gave as good as she got?_  
NotBottleBlonde: What?  
 _TrillHitchhiker: She was complaining about not being able to draw properly today because her hand was still sore._  
 **> NotBottleBlonde has sent a snapshot!**  
 _TrillHitchhiker: ...well._  
 _TrillHitchhiker: I retract my supposition._  
 _TrillHitchhiker: She has a few bruises, yes, but not the outline of fingers._   
NotBottleBlonde: Seriously how did she get a grip like that?  
 _TrillHitchhiker: Art marathons, presumably._   
NotBottleBlonde: I don't think a killer pencil grip translates to this.   
_TrillHitchhiker: Perhaps not._  
 _TrillHitchhiker: So what now?_  
NotBottleBlonde: Pardon?  
 _TrillHitchhiker: Do you want to pursue this, or just let lightly dozing dogs lie?_  
NotBottleBlonde: I genuinely don't know.  
NotBottleBlonde: I think I'll leave it alone for a little while anyway.   
NotBottleBlonde: Hang on, I have another message coming through. Talk to you in a bit?   
_TrillHitchhiker: I'm doing nothing important. I'm sure I'll reply when you message me again._

\--

 _XenaWasRight: The car is back in action._  
NotBottleBlonde: Great!   
NotBottleBlonde: So who was this mystery person who had you so enthralled?  
 _XenaWasRight: Uhhh_  
NotBottleBlonde: C'mon. Inquiring minds want to know.  
NotBottleBlonde: You haven't enjoyed a date for the company since... I don't know when.   
_XenaWasRight: It wasnt a date!!!_  
NotBottleBlonde: You missed an apostrophe and had to switch to tap typing from swype.   
NotBottleBlonde: >:)   
_XenaWasRight: you are really insufferable sometimes._  
NotBottleBlonde: Only when I'm right.  
 _XenaWasRight: So it wasn't a date._  
 _XenaWasRight: PERIOD_  
 _XenaWasRight: But I think I like her._   
NotBottleBlonde: "Her"?   
NotBottleBlonde: Are you joining the 'into at least some ladies romantically' club here?  
 _XenaWasRight: ..._  
NotBottleBlonde: It's a good club. We have cookies.  
 _XenaWasRight: So you are into Nanase._  
NotBottleBlonde: Eh, she's taken, I'm not holding out for her.   
NotBottleBlonde: I might have my eyes on someone else.  
 _XenaWasRight: ..._  
 _XenaWasRight: Yeah I'm gay._  
 _XenaWasRight: And you have weird timing for this._  
 _XenaWasRight: Did you deliberately wait for me to find someone I was interested in?_  
NotBottleBlonde: What?   
_XenaWasRight: You could have just told me you weren't interested._   
NotBottleBlonde: WHAT?   
_XenaWasRight: you aren't telling me you were that oblivious_  
 _XenaWasRight: you were that oblivious_  
NotBottleBlonde: Okay we clearly have to talk about this in person. o_o   
_XenaWasRight: Are you also going to tell me you didn't know about Rhoda having a crush on you?_  
NotBottleBlonde: Oh THAT was obvious to anyone with eyes.   
NotBottleBlonde: And some people without them.  
NotBottleBlonde: I just figured that'd pass.   
NotBottleBlonde: Besides I was just nice to her, and it's not l  
 _XenaWasRight: ...did your phone die?_  
NotBottleBlonde: I'm having a lot of personal revelations and realizations about my best friends and their respective relationships all at once.   
NotBottleBlonde: It's not conducive to texting.   
NotBottleBlonde: Talk to you later tonight?   
_XenaWasRight: Sure. Fine._   
NotBottleBlonde: And sorry.   
NotBottleBlonde: I suck at introspection.  
 _XenaWasRight: True facts._

\--

NotBottleBlonde: Hey, Sarah?   
_TheWizardSarah: hey! diane right?_   
NotBottleBlonde: Yeah! Sorry, it's always kind of awkward being the one to initiate texting with someone you just met.   
_TheWizardSarah: nbd! whats on your mind?_  
NotBottleBlonde: A bunch of things all at once.   
NotBottleBlonde: How's your hand?  
 _TheWizardSarah: my hand?_  
 _TheWizardSarah: okay?_  
 _TheWizardSarah: totally fine!_  
 **> NotBottleBlonde has sent a snapshot!**  
NotBottleBlonde: Really?  
 _TheWizardSarah: ill be over here cringing in the corner for the next hour_  
NotBottleBlonde: Hey, it's fine.   
NotBottleBlonde: Susan said that I bruised up your hand too.  
 _TheWizardSarah: little bit yeah_  
NotBottleBlonde: Well, as long as I didn't break anything...  
 _TheWizardSarah: just making it hard for me to hold a brush for a long time thats all!_  
 _TheWizardSarah: i can cope._   
NotBottleBlonde: Cool. Cool. :)   
NotBottleBlonde: I don't suppose I can make it up to you?  
 _TheWizardSarah: uh_  
 _TheWizardSarah: your hand looks a lot worse than mine does_  
 _TheWizardSarah: i mean not that it looks bad but i have a few splotches and you kind of have a, uh..._  
 _TheWizardSarah: imprint?_  
NotBottleBlonde: Yeah, but I'm not doing anything requiring fine manual precision at the moment.   
NotBottleBlonde: Call it a way to make up for the break in your workflow.   
_TheWizardSarah: well what did you have in mind?_  
NotBottleBlonde: Dinner?   
NotBottleBlonde: My treat.   
_TheWizardSarah: sure!_  
 _TheWizardSarah: potentially related topic_  
 _TheWizardSarah: you let one of your friends know you were asking me out before you did, right?_   
NotBottleBlonde: Nnnnno? Susan, but I told her I was going to sit on it for a while beforehand.   
_TheWizardSarah: well i think the news got around somehow_  
NotBottleBlonde: ...?  
 _TheWizardSarah: i just got a text from someone called xenawasright that just says 'if you hurt her i'll kill you'._   
NotBottleBlonde: ...  
NotBottleBlonde: So 8:00 maybe? The mall?  
 _TheWizardSarah: sounds great._   
NotBottleBlonde: And I have to go have an evidently-overdue talk with someone. 9_9

**Author's Note:**

> The roller coaster type in question is probably nonexistent, but is based on the same concept as a ‘4th Dimension’ roller coaster, albeit with more traditional coaster elements.
> 
> This was done as part of El Goonish Shive Flashfic Week at egsreactions on Tumblr.


End file.
